Train Victim's Life Was Difficult
URL: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050520/NEWS/505200359/1004/news
BARTOW -- Misfortune tormented George Robert Williams' life. And it surrounds his death.
Williams, 49, died Saturday after a CSX freight train struck him near his Bartow home as he took his normal walk across the railroad tracks, according to Bartow police.
The accident happened at 1:33 p.m. in the 1800 block of East Dunbar Street.
It was the second time in three years that Williams, who was hearing-impaired, was hit by a train.
"I don't understand why this happened again," said Williams' sister Mary Wardell, who lives in Miami.
Investigators have ruled out suicide.
Williams was walking west on Dunbar Street when the train struck him.
The train engineer, Jim McKee, who was driving the train, told police that he blasted the horn several times and tried to lock the brakes immediately.
The maximum speed in the area is 35 mph, said Bartow Police Det. Supervisor David Wayne.
Investigators have not yet determined the speed of the train at the time of impact.
Williams' first mishap with a train happened on Aug. 29, 2003, as he returned home from a friend's house.
He survived that encounter, though he was airlifted to Lakeland Regional Medical Center and treated for an eye injury and cuts on both arms and legs, Bartow police said.
Williams' family now questions whether the fatal accident could have been prevented.
Wardell, Williams' sister, said that because of the first incident, "there should have been in place some kind of alert in the train system to take extra precautions in the area."
CSX spokesman Gary Seas said the engineer did all he could to warn Williams as the train approached.
Seas said CSX's investigation is about to wrap up. Its findings will be sent to the Federal Railroad Administration, as required by law, he said.
"It's been ruled as a trespassing fatality," Seas said. "It's a tragedy, and our sympathies go to the family, but we had the right of way."
It's unclear why Williams didn't see the train coming.
A makeshift memorial of plastic flowers made by local residents stands next to the train tracks.
It stands in remembrance of a life plagued by outsized hardship that began well before he was hit by a train for the first time.
Williams was given away by his mother to CJ and Viola Williams at the age of 2.
His mother, Catherine Moore, is also hearing-impaired and lives in Miami. Williams was one of 10 brothers and sisters.
At 18, Williams was legally adopted by the Williamses. They are both dead, Wardell said.
Just a couple of blocks away from the railroad tracks, Williams lived alone in his childhood home, which had deteriorated severely over the years.
Recently, the house caught fire because Williams apparently left a lighted candle unattended, his sister said.
"He didn't have electricity and didn't want to bother anybody," Wardell said.
The fire did obvious damage to the house.
Wardell said her brother was not a man to reach out for help.
"He was very soft-spoken and wanted to do everything on his own," she said.
Williams' uncle, Willie A. Bush, owns Peninsular cleaners on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
He learned about Williams' death during a trip to Alabama.
"He was a kind man," he said. "He didn't deserve it."
URL: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050520/NEWS/505200359/1004/news
BARTOW -- Misfortune tormented George Robert Williams' life. And it surrounds his death.
Williams, 49, died Saturday after a CSX freight train struck him near his Bartow home as he took his normal walk across the railroad tracks, according to Bartow police.
The accident happened at 1:33 p.m. in the 1800 block of East Dunbar Street.
It was the second time in three years that Williams, who was hearing-impaired, was hit by a train.
"I don't understand why this happened again," said Williams' sister Mary Wardell, who lives in Miami.
Investigators have ruled out suicide.
Williams was walking west on Dunbar Street when the train struck him.
The train engineer, Jim McKee, who was driving the train, told police that he blasted the horn several times and tried to lock the brakes immediately.
The maximum speed in the area is 35 mph, said Bartow Police Det. Supervisor David Wayne.
Investigators have not yet determined the speed of the train at the time of impact.
Williams' first mishap with a train happened on Aug. 29, 2003, as he returned home from a friend's house.
He survived that encounter, though he was airlifted to Lakeland Regional Medical Center and treated for an eye injury and cuts on both arms and legs, Bartow police said.
Williams' family now questions whether the fatal accident could have been prevented.
Wardell, Williams' sister, said that because of the first incident, "there should have been in place some kind of alert in the train system to take extra precautions in the area."
CSX spokesman Gary Seas said the engineer did all he could to warn Williams as the train approached.
Seas said CSX's investigation is about to wrap up. Its findings will be sent to the Federal Railroad Administration, as required by law, he said.
"It's been ruled as a trespassing fatality," Seas said. "It's a tragedy, and our sympathies go to the family, but we had the right of way."
It's unclear why Williams didn't see the train coming.
A makeshift memorial of plastic flowers made by local residents stands next to the train tracks.
It stands in remembrance of a life plagued by outsized hardship that began well before he was hit by a train for the first time.
Williams was given away by his mother to CJ and Viola Williams at the age of 2.
His mother, Catherine Moore, is also hearing-impaired and lives in Miami. Williams was one of 10 brothers and sisters.
At 18, Williams was legally adopted by the Williamses. They are both dead, Wardell said.
Just a couple of blocks away from the railroad tracks, Williams lived alone in his childhood home, which had deteriorated severely over the years.
Recently, the house caught fire because Williams apparently left a lighted candle unattended, his sister said.
"He didn't have electricity and didn't want to bother anybody," Wardell said.
The fire did obvious damage to the house.
Wardell said her brother was not a man to reach out for help.
"He was very soft-spoken and wanted to do everything on his own," she said.
Williams' uncle, Willie A. Bush, owns Peninsular cleaners on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
He learned about Williams' death during a trip to Alabama.
"He was a kind man," he said. "He didn't deserve it."